LATEST THINKING

Breaking through the complexity barrier

OVERVIEW

The ability to manage organizational complexity can provide companies with a significant competitive advantage—enabling them to rapidly respond to changing market conditions and the overall business environment.

However, Accenture Strategy research reveals that the vast majority of CEOs admit that their organizations have significant room to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how they manage complexity.

A small, elite group of traditional companies are breaking through the complexity barrier by building new, integrated operating models that improve complexity management and deliver improved business outcomes while releasing capital to help accelerate their investments into new digital capabilities.

KEY FINDINGS

In today’s fast-paced digital era, the ability to manage organizational complexity can provide a significant competitive advantage. However, the vast majority of CEOs admit that their organizations have significant room for improvement.

Eighty percent of CEOs surveyed by Accenture Strategy agreed that the ability to manage complexity can enable them to rapidly respond to changing market conditions and the overall business environment.

Nearly 80 percent also acknowledge that internal complexity inhibits their organization’s ability to be as effective and efficient as it could.

Many companies’ endeavors to address these challenges have largely been ineffective. Our analysis indicates that one major reason for this is the fragmented, function-driven nature of organizations’ transformation efforts.

Refine the roles of central, regional and divisional functions and establish a new integrated business services capability that can rapidly scale analytics and digital technology capabilities for prime value chains.

Shift functional leadership to emphasize its role in enterprise value.

Make transformation a business priority in order to balance disruption and business benefits.